into the city

with all that has been going on with my health recently, we’ve been taking our weekends to rest and relax together. but, after we found this gem, through our bank, we decided that we would venture out into the city for a change of pace and to enjoy the museums. if we can time things right, we might be able to enjoy museums other cities have to offer by using this sweet deal!

so, saturday we woke up to catch the train into the city. this was actually our first time to go check things out on our own. every time we’ve gone into the city we’ve met friends, or my aunt came to visit in february, and we haven’t really been able to explore together without a time schedule. so, this was our day! it was fun to have a date in the city together.

after looking at our options for museums, we decided to visit the shedd aquarium. matt had never been before, and it had been close to 5 years since i had visited, so it was a fun adventure. yes, we walked all the way from union station to the aquarium, but we love to walk, and love to see the city that way. plus, we learn so much more about the city by doing that! and, thankfully, it didn’t rain on us with the dreary/foggy day we were having! what we did not expect was to run into the polish constitution day parade that was happening in the park on columbus. it was so wild to be transported suddenly to signs, language, dress, all being in polish (and it made me think back to the days of living in poland!). so cool.

once we got to shedd, there was a bit of a line. for sure it wasn’t terrible, but it was rather unfortunate to wait for so long. thankfully, once we were able to get in, we could go wherever we wanted. the first couple places we went to were crowded with people, i mean, you had to duck and maneuver to even see some of the animals, so we kind of rushed through that a bit to attempt to find places with fewer visitors. overall, we were able to see some awesome animals, and take in the beauty of all that the Lord created. we were so thankful to be able to take it all in, see so much, and had a great time together.

once we had finished at the aquarium, we decided to walk alongside the lake on our way to eat lunch. we tried to eat at marcus samuelsson’s restaurant once before, but didn’t realize it closed in the afternoon, so we thought we would give it another shot. yum! thank you for the pesto burger, buffalo burger and fries. it was a perfect finish to our outing in the city.

we decided our feet had enough walking and we would head back to the trains. we had no idea what time it might be leaving, but we wanted to be ready. thankfully we only had to wait 20 minutes before the next one left and perfectly enough, we would be able to make it to church!

overall, it was a great day, we had so much fun exploring, checking out the aquarium, eating some yummy burgers, and walking around the city! plus, it was fun to do something different, and great to spend some time together out of the house and enjoying nature.